


Everything I See Adds Up to Say the Tale is Tall

by rin0rourke



Category: Miraculous Ladybug, Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Crack, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Found Family, Hurt/Comfort, JackRabbit - Freeform, Jealousy, M/M, Marichat, Multi, Songfic, marijack brotp
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-07-16
Packaged: 2020-06-29 18:18:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19835887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rin0rourke/pseuds/rin0rourke
Summary: Desperate for a quiet moment to just be, be sad, be angry, be anything but the forced upbeat responsible hero she is, Marinette sneaks out one night to cry by herself at the park, and is forced to flee from an Akuma that approaches her. Regardless of what she knows and Tikki's urging she can't focus enough to bottle all the hurt and stress she had begun to vent, but just when it seems she'll be akumatized she's transported to the mysterious forest where the Oak of Sorrows grows, and meets its powerful and whimsical friend Jack Frost. A meeting which sparks a change in how she sees and feels her own emotions and unlocks the ancient and hidden secrets of the Miraculous.Marinette never imagined the fairytale beings of her childhood would be paying her visits, or that she would find herself in the presence of anyone more powerful and magical than her and her team. Nor that their main interest is not in saving the world as a whole, but helping her save herself.





	1. Forest for the Trees

**Author's Note:**

> Self indulgent hurt/comfort fic that's also a crack Jack/Marinette brotp and a pinch of songfic later down the line.  
> Song suggestions will be at the end of every chapter as ending theme, the fic as a whole's theme song is Tower by Vienna Teng

“This is so unfair!”

It was only by the grace of several months fighting Akuma’s that Marinette didn’t immediately faceplant when her foot caught the curb, but she still went down hard into that shoulder roll. It hurt, a throbbing burn that pulsed in time with her racing heart as she ducked under the monkey bars and made a beeline for the park entrance.

“You have to clear your mind of negative emotions Marinette,” Tikki urged, clinging to her collar, “the Akuma won’t stop following you until you calm down.”

Tears of frustration prickled her eyes. That was easy enough to say, and easy enough to do the few times she’d been facing small immediate disasters in her life, but she’d come here specifically because she was HURT, because nothing was going right and it wasn’t FAIR, and she’d just wanted a moment, one quiet moment alone to just cry it out. Was she not even allowed to cry anymore?

“Marinette, I know you’re upset, but you can’t let your emotions rule you. Please, the Akuma is getting closer.”

She screwed her eyes shut and willed her legs to push past their lagging strength, the park seemed so much bigger in her panic, no it seemed so much bigger because she wasn’t in her suit, with its enhanced strength and agility. If she’d been Ladybug she wouldn’t have tripped on a sidewalk curb, she definitely wouldn’t have jarred her shoulder! She had been such an idiot coming out here as herself, as Marinette she wasn’t strong or fearless or capable. Marinette couldn’t even mope on a swing set without getting akumatized. It was no wonder everyone had bailed on her.

“Marinette!!”

“I JUST WANTED TO BE ALONE!!!” She screamed.

A chill touched her.

Cold, like ice, like all the warmth inside her was suddenly gone.

Was this what it was like? Being akumatized?

She turned to look over her shoulder and her foot snagged, because of course it did, she was Marinette klutz extraordinaire, and this time there was no recovery. She tried, it was instinctual to at least try, but her body had been turned to look behind her and time just didn’t work like that, reflex didn’t work like that, and without her suit her muscles certainly didn’t work like that.

She went down hard, skidding through the line of trees, hands out to catch her taking the bulk of the impact and scrapping from palms to elbows in the packed dirt. Her hip caught on the protective fencing on the closest tree.

She lay there a moment, breathing heavy and shivering, eyes scrunched shut. She didn’t want to see it. If Hawkmoth was going to try to talk to her she absolutely wouldn’t listen to him. She wouldn’t! She was Ladybug, and she wasn’t going down without a fight!

But nothing came.

There was no voice. The Akuma victims could never really remember their time under his control, but she knew he talked to them, heard them communicating herself. Why wasn’t she…?

She blinked her eyes open, her nose twitching.

It was dark, darker than the park should be, even at night, and just past the trees was the street, and the street had lights. She’d been trying to run home, certain that if she could just get somewhere safe, comfortable, with people she loved who needed her, she could shove all her feelings down again and face the Akuma with a clear head.

But this didn’t smell like the park.

She sat up rubbing at her eyes then immediately hissed. Her palms were completely raw, and wet, no doubt she was bleeding.

“Tikki, do you see the Akuma?” she tried to blink the spots from her eyes, had she hit her head? Why did it feel like she’d been looking into a bright flash?

A beat, a nervous fluttering heartbeat, and she felt her anxiety flare. “Tikki?”

No answer.

Had she actually been Akumatized?

Was this why no one remembered? Did they even have a fighting chance against Hawkmoth once the butterfly touched them? Did they just get trapped somewhere in their mind?

She reached out… and felt something solid brush her fingers, yelping she lurched back and bumped into another one. “Who’s there?!”

Nothing.

Carefully she reached behind her, towards what she bumped into. Rough, uneven, flakey, kind of dirty, she rubbed the dirt between her fingers, sniffing. Bark. Tree Bark. But all the trees in the park were young ornamental trees, with fences around them, this one had a diameter that was twice as thick as her torso.

Bracing against it she rose on shaking legs. “Tikki? Can you hear me?” she called. If she was in her own mind maybe she could communicate? It worked in TV shows.

No one answered.

“Think Marinette, if you’ve been Akumatized then that means Hawkmoth has your earrings. You need to get out of here before he gets to Chat Noir.” Would her Akuma-self reveal she was Ladybug? And if she did, would she have transformed? This was bad, this was really really bad, even if she did get back she wouldn’t be able to be Ladybug again, and Chat! How would he react? Absolute disaster, complete and total failure as a hero, why had she ever even gone out to the park?! Stupid stupid stupid!!!!

Tears burned her eyes and she screwed then shut tightly, pressing her face into the bark of the tree. She knew exactly why she went out, alone, into the night. She wasn’t strong enough, she didn’t deserve to be Ladybug if she couldn’t even keep herself from getting upset over something so so… so…

“It was important to me.” She whispered, blinking the tears away. “I know I’m flakey, and I probably deserve being left after all the times I bail on them, but I can’t help that it hurts.” It hadn’t been anything big, and it wasn’t like she had needed the help, but she had wanted to thank everyone for putting up with her constantly ditching them or being occupied with her projects. It was just one last finishing touch, the M logo in its white circle, the Heroes t-shirts that she had designed for their fund raiser only needed that last iron on patch to be finished, and she’d planned to share it with her friends. Just a little girl’s night in, to celebrate and appreciate each other.

She’d even invited Cloe, she had even invited Lila.

But that was the problem wasn’t it? Lila.

LILA!

Who had called as soon as everyone was gathered, hysterical, claiming to have just been akumatized and rescued by Ladybug, and in need of emotional support.

And of course, of course Marinette couldn’t object, even though she was Ladybug and she was Right There and KNEW Lila was lying, how could she have insisted that an Akuma victim was less important than her casual party? How would that have made her look?

So everyone had rushed out, because they were good people, and she was so so very proud of them. They were so kind, so good, and it hurt that their compassion and love was being used against them.

It wasn’t even the loneliness. Marinette rubbed at her eyes with her jacket, careful of the dirt and blood on her hands. Her feelings were so confusing, so jumbled up and piled together, she couldn’t even always tell what was making her so upset sometimes, and even when she did know she couldn’t always prevent it from growing. She knew, of course she knew that her worries and fears were overblown, but they felt so much bigger sometimes. So even though she knew her friends weren’t really choosing Lila over her, when she knew that they were good people and that she should be happy they would rush to the side of someone who was hurting, she couldn’t stop this sharp stabbing pain, this unfounded and unwanted certainty that they would all leave her just like Lila said they would.

_Chirp_

She sucked a shuddering breath in and nearly choked. “Tikki?”

A struggling sound, like fluttering wings, more erratic than an Akuma but softer than a bird, and that same chirp. A small bird maybe? Would there be a bird in her Mindspace?

Come to think of it, would there be trees? A whole ding dang forest?

It smelled damp and musky, like a mix of bags of old wet leaves that got missed by the garbage men and bags of fresh potting soil for the plants on her roof, and firewood too but not the smoky smell of a campfire, it was freshly cut wood. She’d never been in a forest before, she was a city girl at heart and the Jardin des Plantes was as close as she’d ever gotten to roughing it in the wilderness, but she imagined this was what a forest smelled like.

Careful deliberate step by careful deliberate step she moved away from her tree towards where she’d hear the sounds, arm out in from of her for the next one. It wasn’t far. She breathed deeply, relieved, and all but fell against it. This one was smoother, a flaky peeling bark like old paint. Smaller too, she could wrap her arms around it and comforted herself with an indulgent hug.

“I like trees,” the sound of her voice was jarring in the quiet darkness, “I really like trees, and would really like to have a few more of them ahead so I’m not walking around in circles please.” The idea of wandering through open space unseeing made her anxiety spike. “So please let there be more trees ahead.” She let go and reached out.

It was a bit further; she was down to her fingertips on her current tree before she brushed against the next, but once she did she rushed to it and like before took a moment to breath.

That was her journey onwards, tree to tree she went, occasionally stumbling over a root or fallen branch or running into a bush. Some of the trees were thin, hardly more than seedlings, and some of them were so big it felt like running into a wall, but she never went far before she found something else to hold onto. There were no open spaces, and she anticipated and dreaded when she found one, because nowhere in her little section of Paris could she walk so far among trees and not reach an exit. She didn’t think running from the Akuma would have landed her near the wooded areas of Bois de Vicennes or Bois de Boulogne, and none of her nearest parks were so densely packed and overgrown.

No, wherever she was she didn’t think she was in Paris anymore.

Another chirp!

She spun, straining her eyes, but even the trees in front of her were indistinguishable among the rest of the darkness.

“Hello?” she risked calling out, even though years of horror movies had told her that was the absolute worst thing to do. “Hello, is anyone there?” The chirp sounded again, higher, faster, a succession of bleeps that sounded urgent. Even if it was just a bird any company, any sign of life was welcome. “Please, I just need to know I’m not stuck in my own head. Please tell me I’ve been teleported somewhere and that I’m not trapped here.”

Light, so white it blinded her, she shut her eyes against the sharp pain but her ears could still hear the erratic flutter of wings growing louder. She covered her eyes and squinted through her fingers. Yes, something was definitely flying towards her.

A... hummingbird?

The strange light dimmed and she blinked spots out of her vision, trying to make sense of the blurry bird flitting around her. It didn’t seem to be glowing, but she could see it clearly in the darkness. “Hello little bird, I’m sorry for bothering you.” It chirped as if answering and moved from one side of her to the next, as if assessing her. It was a little big for a hummingbird. Finally it hovered right in front of her and on blind girlish instinct honed from years of fairytales and daydreams she held out her hands so it could land in her cupped palms, which it promptly did to her utter delight. “Oh you are so pretty, look at you, I was so worried you would be some kind of monster or angry bee, you have no idea how happy I am to see you, you are just so… you have hands.”

It did. It had hands. Which it was using to pat her thumb comfortingly. It blinked big humanoid eyes at her, different colored eyes of blue and purple, and gave the dragonfly wings on its back a little flutter as it adjusted its sitting position in her hands.

“Are you a fairy?” she asked, and it nodded its little head, yellow feather crest bobbing. “Oh, well not that I’m disappointed but… I guess that means I’m not in a normal forest, am I?”

It shook its head no this time, showing off both sides of the long pointed hummingbird beak where its nose should be.

“I was afraid of that.” She slumped back against the tree, thunking her head against it. “How did I even get here? I was in my park near my house. We don’t have anything like this in my arrondissement! And where did Tikki go? Am I actually akumatized right now? How do I get back? What if I’ve revealed myself by now? Master Fu will be so disappointed in me, and CHAT! I can never be Ladybug again!”

The little fairy looked more and more worried the longer she went on, chittering at her and flitting up to hover in front of her face, hands on her nose to try to steady her and get her to look it in the eyes. Marinette sniffed, hyper aware of the dampness under her nose from her crying and not wanting this cute little fairy to notice her snotty nose.

Having gained her attention the little fairy retreated a bit, pointing off in the distance and waving her over. “You want me to follow you?” It nodded. “But I can’t see anything, what if I lose you? Everything is so… dark…”

Looking around she noticed the change, she could see the trees, barely but she could see them. The light from before, the bright one, it hadn’t been the fairy. Or maybe it had, but it wasn’t coming FROM the fairy. It wasn’t as powerful as before but it was above them, hovering. “What is that?” She turned to the fairy who just smiled and tweeted at her.

As if noticing her interest the light sank down, a drifting whimsical descent, like a feather in a little whirl of wind. It didn’t look like a thing that was emitting light, there was no spot in the middle, she could see right through it, like a little glowing cloud. It flashed softly, a little shift in its light, then drifted away in the direction the fairy had pointed. Where it went the hard darkness receded, leaving only soft grey shadows behind. In these shadows she could see what she had been looking for all this time, dark shapes on dark, a noticeable outline, she could finally SEE the darkness.

“It’s like I’ve been walking blind all this time.” She whispered and pushed off from her tree to follow. “I thought for sure it was just too dark, but nowhere is really this dark right? There’s always something, the moon, the stars,” she looked up and where before there had been nothing but blackness she could see the purple sky, and millions upon billions of stars. Far more than she had ever been able to see in the glow of the city lights. Her fear, like a heavy blanket she had wrapped around her, fell away. “I can do this; I can escape this.”

The fairy chirped ahead and she hurried to match its pace. She didn’t know where she was, or if she was in her head or not, but forest or Mindspace she obviously had allies. If she was akumatized she’d find some way to stop herself, some way to fight it off and help Chat defeat herself.

But if she wasn’t…

If she wasn’t and had been sent somewhere... she’d find her way back. Her resolve solidified and she clenched her throbbing, scraped hands to fists at her side. She’d find Tikki and they’d go home.


	2. Lost in Translation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette meets new friends while old friends unintentionally parry attacks upon her character. 
> 
> Lila fumes, Chloe gloats, and Tikki is still missing.

“Who’s this?”

Marinette twitched, blinking open her eyes at the sound of fast chirping.

“Oh, you led her here?” A twitter that sounded like an affirmation.

The voice, a human voice, was very deep, a man’s voice in fact, with a rumbling undertone that sounded like it hadn’t been used in some time. He spoke low, softly, and she could almost imagine it was the tree itself that spoke.

But she had met the tree last night, and it hadn’t said a word.

Marinette sat up, the thick brown cloak, leather of some kind with a soft fur lining, sliding off her shoulders. She had been given it last night by the fairies, there were a few of them here along with some strangely intelligent mice. If she hadn’t known better she would have thought she’d found the home of la petite souris. Of course she was far past the times she believed in such things, even with a magical superhero sidelife.

“Hello?” She called and the chittering quieted. There was a scuff, like wood on wood, boots? But it was only one. She didn’t hear any footsteps.

Though would she even? This place was pretty weird. Fairies and mice and a giant scary tree that looked like it was howling.

A scary tree whose howling mouth she was currently sleeping in.

Under a fur cape made by fairies.

The little fairy came buzzing in, it looked like the same one from last night, bi colored eyes and yellow crest, all the others that came and went had only purple eyes and the pretty teal colors of their body feathers on their head. Was this one their leader?

“Good morning… I think?” she tilted her head and regarded the soft glow beyond the curve of the tree. She was pretty deep inside its mouth. She resisted, on risk of being grossed out, calling it the belly. “Thank you for taking care of me. I’m sorry if I was any trouble.”

The fairy shook her head, chirping away in a manner Marinette could only interpret as denial.

“I doubt you could give Babytooth any trouble,” the deep voice had her looking up towards the entrance, where a hooded figure leaned against the wall, “or anyone in the Oak of Sorrows in fact.” He chuckled low, stroking a long pale finger over the crest of a fairy nuzzling his chin. “This place was made to comfort the lost after all.”

“This place?” She asked, and he paused, looking up with startlingly blue eyes. Wide, like they were surprised at something, a mind halting shock. “Do you know where we are?”

“You… you can see me?”

“Yesss?” She drew out, concerned. Was he a fairy? He kind of looked like a vagrant in his tattered pants and dirt stained blue hoodie, but his face was very young and clean shaven. A runaway teen? Had he lived with the fairies too long that he was invisible to people? Was he a fairy?

Was he a ghost?

“You can see me…” His gaze drifted off with the murmur, mind obviously wandering.

“You speak French.”

“Do I?”

Okay, was he or wasn’t he sane? Or was he being sarcastic? “I mean,” she pointed out, “that I can’t be very far right? If you speak French then I’m still in France, maybe still in Paris, so I just need to find a way out of these woods right?” Her voice may have raised to hysterical on that ‘right?’ but he had winced at both France and Paris and that, that as not a reassuring sign.

“Or?” he held his pointer finger up, each hand forward like a goal post, “Or, you could be in Canada?” He offered. “Or pretty close? Like.. say Pennsylvania?”

She couldn’t help it, she laughed. “You can’t honestly… That’s an entire ocean away! There’s no way I could have ‘run’ to America.” And where in Canada was Pennsylvania? Was that near Quebec or was it in Greenland? She wasn’t that good with her Nations outside of Europe. Geography was boring. “You have the same accent as my friend, Alya, so I guess you’re from America right? But we’re in France right now.”

The man and the Fairy, what had he called her? It had sounded like bébé in the first part but the rest had sounded like ‘molaire’ and that couldn’t be right.

Probably just his accent.

The man and the Fairy exchanged a look. Not just any look. A significant ‘look’. A look that said ‘tread cautiously, we have to say something uncomfortable and we don’t know how’.

“Is your friend American?”

“Alya? Well, her family is, or rather, they were from France and went to America and are now back. Over several generations. Not to say a few wouldn’t have come back sooner, just that her immediate family, you know her mom and dad and sisters, they just came back.” She was babbling, of course she was babbling, these two were going to give her ‘unfortunate news’ and she was not ready after she was mysteriously teleported to parts unknown without her kwami. She still wasn’t fully convinced she wasn’t in some place Akuma Victims went while their bodies were used by a supervillain.

“Canadian?” he prompted.

“Uh, no actually.” She twisted her hands in the cloak, “She said she’s creole? She’s from Martinique?”

“Ah, so its Antillean Creole.” The man nodded, like that answered all his question. “Sorry, sometimes I don’t know what language I speak. I’m indigenous American, Lenape specifically, and so my languages should have an American accent.” He pulled down his hood, and Marinette finally got a good look at his face. “My name is Jack Frost, by the way. Pleased to meet you.”

“M-Marinette.” She held out her hand, not quite able to stop staring, even though his hand was like super ice cold.

He was kind of gorgeous. Not Adrien level gorgeous of course because who could ever? But he was definitely up there.

Way up there.

His lips were a little thin, and his face a little boney, he was at that age where he had lost his baby fat but his facial muscles and jawline hadn’t compensated yet, but they were trying. His eyes crinkled and his teeth came out to bite his lips when he realized she was shaking his hand a little too long, she should probably stop doing that, oh but he had dimples!

“You ah-!” she practically threw his hand away, “I am so sorry, I was spacing out.”

“I could tell.” His voice was way deeper than necessary for someone his age. What was he, 16? 17? Way too deep. Boys shouldn’t sound like distant thunder.

“You said you were Indigenous?” She floundered.

“Yep! Most times if I speak French its up in Canada and I have a First Nation’s accent, which varies by region, I’m told it’s often Cree. Though if I’m State-side it’s a set-in-stone Cajun, never Creole. He scratched the back of his neck and looked bashful, “I don’t find myself in the islands much, once a decade if I’m lucky, so my Creole can be all over the place.”

“Once a decade?” She heard that right, right?

“Yeah, the last time was… after the hurricane? I forget which one. I can only influence it by like, 5 degrees at most but I tried to keep temperatures down for the relief efforts. I couldn’t do much more.”

“Temperatures.” She looked at him, really looked. He was all white and violets, she’d assumed he was albino and was wearing the hood for sun protection but he wasn’t just white blonde he was WHITE, his hair was SILVER, and the oh so lovely embroidery on his clothes wasn’t pretty glittering thread. It was ice. It was honest to goodness ice.

His hand had been cold.

“Are you a fairy?”

Jack laughed, throw back your head and give yourself stiches in your sides laugh. “No, no I’m not that lucky. Babytooth and the others are the only Fairies.” An insulted meep had him glancing at the floor. “And the mice, technically.”

He’d done it again,he’d called her bébé, only this time is was ‘dent de bébé’, which explained the molaire dilemma. “Why did you call her Babytooth?”

“That’s her name? I guess? I named her.” He looked down at the fairy fondly, who settled on his opposite shoulder and cuddles his neck. “Technically you’re not supposed to, but a few kids give them names from time to time, when they catch them taking the teeth. It only lasts until the kids grow up though,” he stroked a finger over her, “one believer isn’t enough to change things forever.”

“Teeth? Believers?” She touched her forehead. “You make no sense.”

“Allow me to introduce you then,” he grinned and bowed. “I am Jack Frost, Spirit of Frost, from first to last, and these are the Tooth fairies.” He indicated both fairies on either shoulder as well at the little mice coming to stop at his feet. “And you are in the Oak of Sorrows, location: old Hawthorn town Pennsylvania,” he paused, considering her, “United States.”

She sat down.

Or fell down.

Her legs gave out and she landed on her butt, so either/or would be accurate.

Her dignity didn’t really matter right now, nor the semantics.

She was so very very very far from home.

And she still didn’t know where Tikki was.

~*~

“I feel just awful.”

“Girl, don’t even worry about it.” Alya gripped Lila’s shoulder in firm comfort. “We’ve all been there, no one here is going to hold it against you.”

The other girls nodded, sitting around her on her bed. It was cramped, and she had to hold her legs close to her to have any kind of personal space, but it was worth it to have them so focused on her. Her, and **not** Marinette.

“But the party! Marinette must hate me.” She buried her face in her knees.

“Of course she doesn’t,” Rose assured her, “Marinette was completely understanding. She’s always making sure everyone is okay after being akumatized.”

“Yeah,” Juleka agreed, “even if she doesn’t like you.”

“Not that Marinette doesn’t like you!” Alya hurried to correct, “Just that even with people like Cloe she’s always there to show support. There’s absolutely no way she’s mad you called. **She’s** the one always insisting we communicate our feelings.”

“But she’s not here.” Lila insisted, her frustration only giving her voice a single octave lift. Could these girls be ANY more up Marinette’s ass?

“She has a lot of work to do, she saved the patches for last minute just for us and now she has to do it alone.” Alix crossed her legs, sneakers still on her feet even though she was inside and On. Lila’s. Bed. “And she’s doing it for the class, if she didn’t finish we wouldn’t have anything for the school fundraiser.”

“And she sent over the snacks!” Myléne opened the box for Lila to choose a cookie.

Oh but they looked so good, she hated it but the Dupain-Cheng bakery really was the best. Why did Marinette have to be such a total stuck up? Lila wanted free food. She wanted Jagged Stone tickets and cute outfits and an introduction to that news lady Marinette always babysat for instead of having to settle for scraps from Alya’s stupid amateur blog. Marinette was the only one of the group with any actual clout aside from Cloe, who also practically hated her. The difference being that being hated by Marinette came with actual drawbacks.

If she had whined that Cloe and Sabrina were being mean to her she would get nods of agreement and angry rants about how horrible the girl was and all kinds of sympathy and there-there’s. Speaking out against Marinette was akin to speaking out against Ladybug. Total blockade, everyone was suddenly deaf to her charm.

“But she hates me!” she insisted again. “She’s always hated me! She picks at everything I say and do and every time I come into a room she’s running out!”

“Girl, she doesn’t need to hate you to do that, she runs in the middle of doing something SHE planned!” Alya declared to the giggles of the other girls. “She’s a total space case and has like a billion things she’s supposed to be doing because she can’t ever say no and can’t remember half of them until the last minute. One time she showed up to the pool three hours late in her pajamas. Trust me, you are not the only one she darts out on.”

“And don’t forget Adrien.” Myléne pointed out and all the other girls nodded like that was some kind of weighty evidence.

“What about Adrien?” Lila pressed, leaning forward.

“When Adrien first transferred at the start of the year we knew nothing about him,” Alya began the story, settling back against the wall beside Lila so that the two of them were surrounded instead of just her, which irritated her. She should be the center, but she didn’t know how to ask her to move without interrupting, and she needed this information if she wanted to undermine Marinette’s chances with Adrien. Not that there really were any, Adrien wouldn’t realize her obvious crush if she kissed him full on the mouth.

“I was new too, so it was no big thing for me, but the only thing we all knew was that Cloe was his ‘best friend’,” Alya air quoted, “and the first thing we see when we walk into class is him squishing gum onto Marinette’s seat.”

“Adrien would never!” Aya waved Lila’s outburst away just as she knew she would. At least in some things she was predictable.

“We know that NOW, but all we knew then was that Adrien was Chloe’s friend, and its not like anyone would speak out against Chloe back then.”

The other girls nodded. “We weren’t that close.” Rose explained.

“Yeah, and we especially weren’t with Marinette. You got close to that girl Chloe made your life hell.” Alix leaned her head back and blew out a long breath through puffed cheeks. “She was territorial. Mayor’s daughter and Police Chief’s? Last time I put my foot down Dad had random searches in every delivery for a month.”

“So you can see why Marinette wouldn’t like Adrien immediately.” Alya continued, “She was sure this was just another rich kid with influence. It took actually talking and explaining it all for Marinette to decide he wasn’t so bad, and **that** took Ivan being Akumatized to happen.”

“Don’t remind me.” Myléne tugged at her multicolored curls in distress, “if Kim hadn’t made fun of him Ivan would never have been attacked, we were all so different back then.”

“Oohh but if he hadn’t then Ivan never would have confessed,” Rose’s voice went dreamy, “and Marinette was the one to push him to tell you. She was always looking out for us, even when we ignored her.”

“See.” Alya insisted to the very confused Lila. “You have nothing to worry about. If she is upset about it you just have to talk it out. I’m sure once she see’s how nice you really are she’ll be more open to you.” Alya snuggled into her side, a hip to shoulder hug that that Lila had to brace herself against. “You’ve just got a few more misunderstandings between you, but Marinette isn’t the type to put a grudge over the truth.”

This was it, this was her chance. Her trump card. “But I’ve tried talking to her,” Lila insisted, “the day I came back to school, when she was so mad I was sitting in the front, I talked to her in the bathroom.”

“I thought you might have, she was much calmer at the end of the day.” Alya smiled, completely missing the **point**. Lila wanted to strangle her.

“No, that’s not it. I tried to talk to her but she wouldn’t listen!” Lila let her voice inch into crying territory. Where these people **dense**? She was trying to be **subtle**. They were as bad as Adrien.

“Makes sense, she did kind of get the short end that day.” Juleka murmured.

“Yeah, it wasn’t like we meant to stick her in the back all alone,” Rose agreed, “I felt really bad about that.”

“And she thought she was going to get to sit with Adrien.” Alya reminded them all, “Coming crashing down off of **THAT** high? I’m surprised she didn’t get akumatized right then and there.”

Oh.

My.

God.

Hello?! Did they forget who was actually akumatized that day? She wanted to **scream**.

The doorbell rang.

“I.. should get that.” Lila inched to the edge of her bed, desperate for a moment away from this complete wall of Marinette love she had invited over.

“No probs, I’ll get it.” Alix darted out and down before Lila’s feet touched the floor, taking all her hopes and dreams with her.

Hawkmoth? You There? Could use an Akuma right about now to beat the shit out of these people without blame.

“Uh, guys we got company!” Aix’s voice was strained.

Was it an Akuma? Pretty please say yes. Hawkmoth coming through with another win.

“Hello losers!”

She squished her eyes shut and groaned.

“Chloe.” Alya’s voice was as flat as Marinette’s was when she said Lila’s name. “Why are you here?”

“Uh you texted the address.” Chloe held up her phone, showing Alya’s text from Marinette’s group chat for the party. “Party canceled, meet at Lila’s house? Did Dupain-Cheng forget we were coming or did she burn the bakery down forgetting her cookies in the oven?”

“Neither Chloe.” Alya narrowed her eyes in a very severe glare, but Lila only leaned back against her wall and sighed long and low. “Lila was akumatized, and we came over for moral support.”

“Oh? What was it this time? Did you read a sad story?” Chloe’s laugh was cut short as Alix came up behind her and shoved her out of the way, arms full of covered dishes.

“Thanks for leaving the luggage with me and Sabrina.” She snapped.

“As if I was going to carry those trays like a servant.” Chloe sniffed.

“You? Brought food?” Myléne looked absolutely stunned. “You?”

“Naturally I wasn’t going to be eating anything Dupain-Cheng made.” Chloe strutted over to Lila’s desk and plopped on the chair, crossing her legs in a dramatic fashion. “I also brought my own logos, because I’m NOT sticking hers on any shirts, oh and I’m not doing any except Ladybug and Queen Bee.”

“Well no one’s doing them now,” Rose pointed out, making Chloe’s eye twitch. “We left Marinette to do them herself.” A slow blink, then she frowned. “That sounded less nice out loud.”

“Yeah, put another check in the ‘we left the work to Marinette’ box.” Alix settled back on the bed sneakers and all, but this time with food which she happily passed around. Did none of these people ever learn manners? Food? On her **BED**?! Lila bit her tongue.

“Yeah, and I thought Sabrina was overworked.” Chloe laughed even as the poor girl brought her the much larger and more intricate lunch box complete with a drink in a glass and all her utensils on a friggen _tray_. “At least I only make her do stuff for **me** , and I don’t pretend it’s a -uuhgg! Where is the dipping sauce, do you expect me to eat this **dry**?!” She demanded and Sabrina stuttered out an apology searching frantically for the little dish.

Alix nudged Alya with a foot and held up the tiny sauce, just out of the other girl’s sight, and winked. The girls on the bed laughed.

“What is so funny?” Chloe demanded and Alix tucked the sauce in her jacket pocket.

“Oh nothing, we were just talking about how upset Marinette would be we left.” Alya opened her food and breathed deep, always count on Chloe to bring the gourmet stuff. Lila just fiddled with hers, keeping the lid on.

“I’m sure she’s mad at me.” Lila spoke up again, trying to bring the conversation back to her point. Maybe Chloe could be the catalyst, after all Marinette was forever clashing with the spoilt brat. “I hate to think of what she’ll say tomorrow.”

“Dupain-Cheng?” Chloe scoffed. “She won’t say anything, the little goody two-shoes is probably patting herself on the back at how kind she was to sacrifice for you.”

“Marinette isn’t like that Chloe.” Alya’s voice was full of offense. “She doesn’t do nice things for **points**. Not like **you**.”

“Oh _please_ , just watch.” Chloe gestured with her fork. “She’ll show up to school with all the shirts done **plus** a banner and macaroons for everyone and a sorry for not being able to make it **HERE** when she’s **_needed_** but she wanted to make it up to you so she baked you an entire cake.” Chloe indicated Lila. “She’ll bake you a big cake with ‘Sorry I was a bad person for thinking of myself for two seconds’ and bend over backwards to make you **like** her. She tries to make **_EVERYONE_** like her.”

The girls all began speaking at once, yelling arguments and complaints towards Chloe who sat, perfectly poised, and merely shifted to exchange one crossed leg for the other.

“She doesn’t have to **try**!” Alya spoke over everyone else. “She just helps people, weather they like her or not. Look at how nice she always is to **you**.”

“Puh~lease, like she could be anything **But**!” Chloe waved it off. “She can’t go five minutes past doing something mean without being ruined by guilt and crawling back to make amends. You’re still knew Césaire, I’ve known Marinette all my **life**. You’ve never seen her when she’s done something _ba~ad_.”

“Marinette would **NEVER**.” Alya spoke through her teeth and Lila, sensing something really juicy, grabbed her arm.

“Please Alya, I don’t want any fights.” She made sure her voice was extra anxious and wobbly.

“Oh, you think so?” Chloe smirked. “Not too long ago at the Ladybug movie premiere Adrikins was there with that Kagami girl, on a **DATE**.” Chloe emphasized, knowing from the worried glances that the other girls would understand the stakes. “And I, being the gracious woman that I am, offered to team up with Marinette to ruin it.”

Bingo.

Lila could kiss her.

There was no way the girls could ignore Lila’s accusations of Marinette’s jealous attacks if there was a fixed pattern in place.

“But she totally backed out at a crucial moment!” Chloe ranted, slamming her hand down on the desk. “She came up with this brilliant, **_BRILLIANT I TELL YOU_** , plan to absolutely destroy that witch, but right when it came time to execute it? She lost steam.”

“But she tried though?’ Lila spoke up, eager, desperate. “She tried to hurt Kagami?”

“Hurt her?” Chloe laughed. “No, we stuck gum on her shoe and made her sit on a cake, but Dupain-Cheng moved the chair. What a loser. She doesn’t have the guts to really fight for someone like Adrien. And I found out, get this, she has a crush on him!” Chloe laughed, loud and mocking.

“Where has _she_ been?” Juleka quipped to the laughter of the other girls.

“I think Chloe is as dense as Adrien,” Glass houses throwing stones Lila thought as Alya threw an arm around her in solidarity, “but this only proves it. Even a girl who was on an actual **date** with _Adrien_! You have nothing to worry about, just talk with her. I’m sure she’ll understand if you do. We’ll all set it up to make sure you get the time you two need.”

“Uh, what’s going on?” Sabrina spoke up for the first time, standing beside Chloe with a tray holding her drink, napkins, and utensils and completely neglecting her own food. “Talk to who?”

“Lila here is worried Marinette is going to be mean because of the party.” Alya explained, giving Lila’s shoulders a good rock.

“ **THE** Marinette Dupain-Cheng? Hah!” Chloe scoffed. “I’ll believe that when I see it.” She sipped delicately at her glass. “And Akumas don’t count.”

That got, for once, a round of agreements from the girls.

Lila fumed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Marinette’s achievements > Lila’s influence
> 
> In this fic we love and support Marinette, even when she accidentally teleports herself to a magical forest because she wants to cry in a tree that eats negative emotions. Also Jack is purty.
> 
> Magical translation mishaps will continue through their friendship and get so so much worse. Or better. Depending on the hilarity of the situation.
> 
> (Hello ML fandom! Lenape!Jack is my standard Jack unless another Indigenous heritage is specifically listed. All my fics include Lenape!Jack. Keep any anti-native comments to yourself please&thank)
> 
> Ending Them: Inner Demons by Julia Brennan

**Author's Note:**

> Ending Theme  
> Fly by Maddie and Tae


End file.
